Email-to-MMS Not Working Reliably
tomcu18
Enthusiast - Level 3

We used to be able to send a SMS or MMS message from email to a Verizon phone.
For SMS the email address of any Verizon customer was number @ vtext.com and for MMS the email address was number @ vzwpix.com 

These are the same email addresses that show up if you send an SMS or MMS message from a Verizon phone to ema

In the last few months the ability to send MMS messages to Verizon phones has become extremely unreliable.  Even worse, when an email is unsuccessfully sent to the customer's vzwpix.com email address it never generates any return error message, so there is no way for the sender to know if the message actually went through.

There are several threads in the forum from customers who have experienced and reported this problem.  Most of those threads were based on the impression that it was a problem with the software being used to send the message, but when you realize that each of the customers is having the same problem despite using different software, it becomes obvious that the problem isn't the users' software - the problem is obviously the Verizon server processing emails sent to vzwpix.com

None of the other threads have received any useful response from Verizon support -- perhaps because those threads mistakenly thought the problem was something outside Verizon.

Labels (1)
Re: Email-to-MMS Not Working Reliably
akanem_vzw
Verizon Employee

tomcu18, thanks for your detailed description of the email to SMS/MMS sending issue. Seeing how handy this feature is, I am committed to investigating this thoroughly for you. I can see how you were able to come to the conclusion with the feature being the main issue, but I want to make sure all assumptions are avoided. Let's get started on collecting more clues. What device are you using to send out the messages? From the messages that you know for certain that did not send, please shed light on how long the message is. Please note that the maximum length of one standard SMS message is up to 160 characters. Please shed clarity on how frequently and how many people are impacted when sending out the SMS/MMS.

AkaneM_VZW

Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport

If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: Email-to-MMS Not Working Reliably
DHFUSSELL
Enthusiast - Level 1

I am noticing the same thing currently. Have been using number@vzwpix.com to receive monitoring alerts from work systems, but have noticed it has quit working. When adjusting to vtext.com it works fine, but our messages are cut short without all the details required. I can agree with the original poster after troubleshooting this issue, there is something wrong with the server side relay processing @vzwpix.com messages.

Re: Email-to-MMS Not Working Reliably
Reederm
Enthusiast - Level 1

I am having very similar issues and have been for at least a few months.

I'm sending single email to text SMS messages (not group messages).  When they are not received at #@vtext.com or #@vswpix.com  no error message is sent back to the sender.

I have access to a few email accounts from different domains so I ran an experiment.  I sent a very short text message and these are the current results:

From two different email accounts hosted at Dream Host:

No SMS text messages received at either #@vtext.com or #@vswpix.com

From an email account hosted at Tucows:

No SMS text messages received at either #@vtext.com or #@vswpix.com

From an email account hosted at 4securemail.com:

SMS text messages successfully received at both #@vtext.com and #@vswpix.com

From an email account hosted at MD OfficeMail:

SMS text messages successfully received at both #@vtext.com and #@vswpix.com

This is getting very tiresome and I see similar issues going on for 5 years on this forum...

Thanks for any and all help to resolve.

Re: Email-to-MMS Not Working Reliably
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Reederm, we greatly appreciate the details you have provided in the tests you ran with vtext. We're sorry to hear you have been running into troubles with this feature for so long. As you are having success with some servers and failure with others do you know if any of your firewalls or restrictions are set up differently? 

 

MelissaP_VZW
Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: Email-to-MMS Not Working Reliably
Reederm
Enthusiast - Level 1

Hi MelissaP_VZW:

Thanks for your response.

I don't believe security is any different for the email addresses and domains involved.  I have not modified my laptop firewall to treat these differently or the firewall on my router.

On Saturday 2/2 (when original message was written) I was accessing Internet across a T-Mobile broadband connection via a wireless router.

Today Monday 2/4 I just tried the same tests again from the same laptop and same email accounts but via my Verizon smartphone hotspot -- and *ALL* SMS email-to-text messages made it through.

However, I then tried all the same tests again across my T-Mobile connection (duplicate of Saturday conditions) and *ALL* SMS messages again made it through.

So -- yeah -- today all is working... But this leaves it a total puzzle as to why its working today, not on Saturday, and when this will next happen again... Or who else out on Internet might try to reach me this way via SMS message and not be able to...

So what can be done if this is an intermittent problem??

Thanks,

Michael

Re: Email-to-MMS Not Working Reliably
tnichols44
Enthusiast - Level 2

I can add some more info. I use both vtext and vzwpix to relay alarm messages from a network monitor from two different locations. I can tell you with certainty the addresses, IPs, e-mail servers, and applications used have not changed on my end. The service was quite reliable for me until about a month or so ago. Now, the messages either don't get delivered at all or are delayed anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.I know this is accurate because these same programs also send alarm messages to my personal e-mail, and they are arriving within seconds according to the timestamp. This is affecting both vtext and vzwpix. I used Wireshark to look at the actual transactions between my apps and the e-mail server. The sessions are perfectly normal. When a message fails to be delivered, there are no bounce or other error messages returned from Verizon. As other users have also noted, I use this service to monitor a critical network. This is a big deal. At first glance, it seems like you have a queuing issue somewhere. Help.

Re: Email-to-MMS Not Working Reliably
tnichols44
Enthusiast - Level 2

I can add a few answers to your questions to the other Tom:

The app sending to Verizon in my case is a custom app. It simultaneously sends the exact same message to my personal e-mail, which is 100% reliable. My alarm messages range from about 50 characters to a very short 10 character message. The message length doesn't seem to matter at all, and the vtext and vzwpix addresses are showing the same unreliable behavior.

Also, these same apps have been sending messages via vtext and vzwpix for over a year without any issues until recently. It's not the users. It's the Verizon system.

Re: Email-to-MMS Not Working Reliably
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

tnicholas, we appreciate you bringing your situation to light as well as to the errors you are encountering. We are gathering all the feedback here to try to find the common problem so we can work to find a resolution. Can you please tell me more about how many messages you are trying to send out at a time? Can you please clarify as to what alert is arriving in your email, and is the timestamp matching the email delivery or when the message was sent? 

 

MelissaP_VZW
Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: Email-to-MMS Not Working Reliably
tnichols44
Enthusiast - Level 2

*** Can you please tell me more about how many messages you are trying to send out at a time?

One.

*** Can you please clarify as to what alert is arriving in your email, and is the timestamp matching the email delivery or when the message was sent?

The monitoring app sends an alert to two e-mail addresses: My personal standard e-mail, and my cell phone as an SMS message using the Verizon e-mail to MMS services. The alert is time stamped as to when it was SENT, allowing me to determine how long it took to arrive in my personal e-mail Inbox and via Text MMS.

The following is typical:  An alert is sent out timestamped when sent. The message arrives in my personal e-mail inbox within 60-90 seconds. The MMS message may take up to 5 to 6 hours to arrive, but that varies from minutes to hours.

Today (Sunday) I received an alert 4 minutes delayed. Then I received one within a minute of it being sent. This gives me additional data that the delays are much more of a problem during the weekdays, so it would appear to be a traffic dependent issue on your side. Weekday delays from last week ranged from 15 minutes to never being delivered via MMS at ALL.